ribbon and scrim 1

I decided yesterday to experiment with two additions: gauzy ribbon and scrim.

Gauzy ribbon, the subject of today’s post, breaks one of the rules of felting. This is that synthetic fibres will not usually ‘take’ within the felt . But if the ribbon has gauzy holes in its structure then wool fibres can migrate through the holes. This allows the potential to add shiny stripes which ruche up in the process. This piece using Jacobs wool tops, gauzy ribbon and a few silk bits, shows the potential for tartan style effects.

laying out

dry stage
The ribbon took well and surprisingly quickly but loses a touch of its twinkle as the wool migrates through it. Nevertheless I love the dark, textured shine of the resulting fabric. I’d definitely use this method to make cushion covers.

Principally felt

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10 comments on “ribbon and scrim 1”

zedster66

24/05/2013

I wonder who started this myth about synthetic fibres and fabrics or why it gets perpetuated? It’s really bizarre, it’s not like natural fibres have the ability to felt, it all depends on whether the wool grips them or not and there really is no reason at all why it shouldn’t grip synthetics.

Your piece looks gorgeous, I love the colours you used and the texture and shine is great 🙂

Thank you. I know what you mean but it can be very frustrating when you do try and add something which just won’t take and it slides off in the wet stage. I’m waiting for some net in a fabric order which is a favourite of mine to add grip.

It sounds arrogant of me to say, but I’ve only had a problem with fabrics a couple of times, and that was when I tried to use a large table for felting on instead of the draining board as usual, I’m guessing the texture of the draining board really helps. And having sausage fingers 🙂